30 Day Shred: The End

So on Friday I did my last work out to complete my thirty days of shredding, and I wanted to review it with you. I do have before and after photos butttttt I'd rather not paste half-naked photos on the internet surprisingly! but what I do have are lots of words.

The DVD and workout:
Loved it. Love it on day three, loved it on day thirty. I love that there are 3 parts to each of 3 circuits. I'm one of these who sometimes cannot be bothered, so the fact I can work out in my head that I'm on my second circuit abs section, I know that I only have three things left to do. As I said before as well I love the variety of moves, I can't pretend I loved all of them (thrust squats are NOT my cup of tea), but you do them for a minute and a half max, and I can definitely get through that. Best work out I've done in a long while (bar a good run).

Weight:
I lost about 5 pounds in total, but I have gained so much more muscle, so I reckon I must have lost a bit more and then put it back on as muscle. I'm fine with this, I wasn't aiming to lose weight in the first place, I wanted to be more toned and stronger. Another thing that I find about exercising is that your boobs always decrease in size, that's the first part to go (for me anyways), but doing these exercises I'd actually have to say that mine have grown (lots of push ups)! and that they are better now than they were before, ha.

Strength:
My arms are 100% stronger. I can see muscle and most importantly, when I bring my food shop in from the car and up three flights of stairs I no longer feel like my arms are going to fall off/I'll die. My leg muscles have gotten bigger and stronger which I'm not thatttttt pleased about, because I wanted my thighs to stop touching, not touch even more haha. But again, I always walk up stairs two at a time, and it's just a lot easier now.

Tone:
This is where I have seen the most difference. My arms look a lot better, my butt is INCREDIBLE in skinny jeans/my old grad dress. I don't have a six pack (surprisingly) but I am pleased that my love handles have gone down (and I only just realised that taking these before and after photo's because the swim suit isn't cutting in at all. And that was another big goal of mine, because I couldn't think of any exercises that would sort that bit! On a side note, my hip bones are a lot more prominent now and I'm not sure how I feel about that. In a ridiculous way, my knees look a lot better too, ha! I have never had knee issues before but I noticed it whilst I was working out, and liked it. I didn't think there was that much difference to my stomach area because it's the area I hate the most, but looking at the photo's there is actually, so I'm pleased about that.

Recommendations:
I really urge you do it. It's nice to have that challenge, it gets you up everyday, it's 20 (27 in my opinion) minutes out of your day so it's easier to fit in than you think. It helps you sleep better and gives you more energy.
If you are enticed, I would also really recommend that you look up a food plan from Jillian Michael's too (I'm not saying pay for it, but study how she puts the plan together and try and make variations of the dishes guessing her ingredients) because I did it still eating how I normally do, and I reckon if I followed the diet plan too I'd be a different girl today.

Conclusions:
I'm so glad I did it. I think I'm going to keep the DVD in my disc drive and still aim to do it about three times a week, because it's good fun and I need something quick else I lose interest.

If you are considering it, here is a youtube video of her level 1 circuit so you can see how much variety there is and how well she pushes you. I feel like Jillian and I are best friends right now, hanging out together for 30 days straight.

Let me know if you start it! I'd love to discuss it with you.

source

Weekly Roundup #33

Another super busy Leeds week. I need to take some time out to start my next essay! I will definitely get to it this week. This photo week started last Sunday with banana bread and chocolate at Theana's watching Harry Potter!

 

I tried a new porrige recipe, mmm, and I met with Harriet and Alyna for a cuppa/juice

 

Where we found this sweet origami crane  

 

at a sleepover I had taco's for the first (and last) time, and we played coppit, ha!

It was my boss' birthday

I had fajitas with Tzatiki 

and today I have created something new -eggy bread bacon sandwich. oh yes. I went there.

I can't chat too much today as I'm sorting my to-do list so I can start reading for my essay. Some firemen popped to my residence already today and I had to tour them without any make up on.. yay for spot inspections. Have you had a good week?

Project Pan

As I mentioned in this post, I was considering starting a project pan. So here is the first project pan post! I have FOUR empties to start with, which I think is an impressive amount if I do say so myself.

Clearasil skin perfecting wash

It was fine, sometimes I just like a facewash that makes me feel like I'm washing my face. But that's about it, it didn't perfect my skin, or make it feel nice or glowy, it didn't really do anything and it didn't even smell nice.

Would I buy it again? no.

Lush's the olive branch shower gel

As a non-shower-gel fan, I was hesitant to use this, but I've actually blogged about it before. As I mentioned in that post, it smells amazing. really incredible, and the smell stays on your skin for a while afterwards. If I were into shower gel, I'd definitely buy it again, but seen as I'm not a fan and it's quite expensive, it'd have to be a no. 

GHD thermal protector 

I have had this forever. It was a freebie with my straighteners (which have actually broken they're so old). I'm talking 6-7 years. But that's because it's a good product, and I like to savour it. It smells okay, not amazing, but what I like is that it doesn't feel like it's too much for my very thin hair (I find some product just make it heavy and icky). 

Would I buy it again? probably, it's a good product. 

But it isn't a must have I'd rather put my feelers out and try something new I think. 

Re-Gen Cream

Again, I have blogged about this before, because it is an amazing cream! It really does improve little spot scars that I have on my face, I don't really use it anywhere else - just as a good heavy moisturiser. I cannot live without this cream, and I am gutted it is all gone but it had a very good run to say that I use it every evening. I am now trying to make my own (by mixing regen oil with my general moisturiser) it's going well, so hopefully it'll be okay.

Would I buy it again? Hell yes. next time I get paid, if the making it myself goes wrong (poor student).

I'm enjoying getting rid of a bit of a clutter so I'm going to be sticking to the project-pan ness. Although I don't know how long it'll be until the next post! I am off to a volunteering ball with a three course meal tonight, I think I'm going to wear this dress as I was too poorly to at Christmas. 

Happy Days

I'm super happy today :) Michael woke me up this morning whilst he was leaving a cute message at like 7.18am, and I replied because I was rolling over and the buzz happened to startle me, and he replied 'WHAT ON EARTH ARE YOU DOING UP'. ha. The conversation went up and up from there, and the cutiepie left me the nicest little message when I went back to sleep. He also seems genuinely happier and that makes me happy.

From there, I did one of the last days of my thirty day shred which has become significantly easier, my make up and hair went nice, and my butt looks great in these new jeans. After that I checked the post and had another lovely letter from Michael, and it's literally just gone up and up.

and for that very reason, I thought I'd share with you my new favourite song of the moment.

Day Trip 20/4/13

As I mentioned on Sunday, I went on a day trip with lots of friends on Saturday. We went to Ilkley/Skipton/Bolton Abbey, similar to the time Michael and I went exploring. It was a very long day, I met my Canadian friend Rosi at the bus stop and we caught the bus to Ilkley. Then we met up with lots of Rosi's Spanish friends (there were 12 of us in total), we explored Ilkley town a little bit, had a fish and chip lunch and then caught the bus to Bolton Abbey. The bus driver complimented my hair, which is always nice :)

The old Abbey has a functioning church attached to it, which was a nice touch. This Abbey also had better up-keep than the one in Kirkstall (you can see a recurring theme of my love for Abbey's...)

There was a nice touch in this one, because the river that was close by had stepping-stones to get across, as well as a bridge, luckily for me. 5 of our friends went across and only one fell in! (unfortunately it wasn't Rosi though :( )

I'm a huge fan of lovely doors, I think you see so many doors that are just plain and boring, so when you see an actual good one it kinda takes you back.

It was also great fun to explore the cemetery and see all the messages left for people. 

A photo of me in the grass (those Spaniards love to take HUNDREDS of photos)

After a game of Spanish dodge-ball (different rules) we walked back to get the bus. But someone read the timetable wrong, and we actually had to wait another hour and a half to get the right bus back to Ilkley. Then in Ilkley we had to wait another 40 minutes for a bus back to Leeds (ruining all my evening plans..) but it was all made right with a lovely cold pint.

It was a good day out, and nice to actually spend time in the sunshine with good company :)

Weekly Roundup #32

I have had a busy week returning to uni; a quiet evening on duty, Canadian friends for dinner, meal with Theana and Harriet, a cheeky niece, sending Michael packages, hand washing clothes, tea and lunch with Eley and Harriet, drinks with Bex from undergrad and an eventful Friday night with Kate in A&E. Saturday I went on a day trip that I shall probably save to share tomorrow :)

dinner with the Canadian (we had beef au jus - so so so good)

This was one of the game we played during lunch with a couple of friends

Haz and I bossed this game (Michael Palin's around the world - who even knows.)

Michael's latest package, it had some good activities!

Had a bit of an accident and needed to hand wash a couple of items 

(my first experience of this, went quite well I reckon!)

Kate, the trooper, in A&E

our treat for an awful afternoon 

(she exited a job interview, fell down the stairs, and got taken to A&E, I rushed out of a lecture/work, met her at A&E and single handedly carried her home. Okay that didn't happen, but I did call her taxi)

Eventful week! and then a bit later on I am off to Theana's to watch Harry Potter. Also, fingers crossed, Michael might be able to call, yippeeee! xx

Home Bird Economics; Etsy.

My absolutely amazing, gorgeous, super-mum sister has just opened her new shop on Etsy! At the moment, there only a couple of things in the shop, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. She's plotting and planning so much more and I'm so excited for all the things she's going to achieve. If you would, please take a look at her shop, and if you fancy anything use the code 'launch10' for 10% off (but don't tell her I told you!).

She puts lots of effort into packaging, and if you read her blog post here, you can see that she really goes the extra mile for all of her buyers.

my mama bought me creepers.

So before I left the other day my mum and I went to matalans for a browse. I fell in absolute love with these shoes, they're silky inside so they're super soft and just hug your feet. Plus I'm a closet fan of leopard print, likely to be my favourite animal print. These are also the jeans I bought on ebay a while ago that I mentioned.. they are very skinny (I've not had such a skinny pair before) and I'm just getting used to them really, but such a good buy for £2.59 (BNWT!)

 

Sorry I haven't been around for a little bit, I've had lots of friends to catch up with :) I hope you're good?